Twisted Minds

Zhang Ye had already tested the power of the Iron Suit. While it could not compare to Iron Man's in the main universe, a weapon like the Particle Beam had been an undeveloped superweapon in Zhang Ye's memories of his previous life.

However, while this weapon possessed considerable combat power, it still lacked the punch needed against Emma Frost, who had transformed her entire body into diamond.

"Get up, Emma. I know you're fine." Zhang Ye suppressed his fury and stepped forward. "Honestly, when I first saw you in the newspapers, I had already prepared myself. But guess what? I still can't tolerate what you've done."

"Of course you cannot understand how wonderful my work is, human. You are nothing but an inferior race. What right do you have to try to understand my thoughts?" Emma climbed to her feet. Her entire body had turned to diamond, gleaming in the dim surroundings.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhang Ye yanked out a submachine gun from behind his back, aimed it at the White Queen, and opened fire. Countless bullets poured forth, striking her body with a piercing chorus of clanging sounds.

"What's wrong, noble and superior mutant? Is your telepathy not working anymore?" Zhang Ye's tone dripped with mockery as he watched Emma pinned down by his firepower.

In his memories, Emma Frost was an antihero of the Marvel universe. Initially a villain, she had helped establish the Hellfire Club and later joined the X-Men. During a major incident, she had even briefly obtained the Phoenix Force.

With such an impressive record, Zhang Ye naturally did not dare let his guard down around her.

After all, Emma Frost was no ordinary Telepath. She possessed telepathic abilities similar to Charles Xavier's and wielded them with extraordinary finesse. She was also regarded as a "world-class Telepath" and an "Omega-level Telepath."

Even Professor X had held her telepathic abilities in high regard. Furthermore, she was considered one of the five greatest Telepaths on the planet capable of altering minds flawlessly.

In the comics, Emma had even defeated Professor X with her telepathy. In a sense, her powers were stronger than Professor X's; he merely won out in popularity and screen time.

And that was not all. Emma was also a secondary mutant among mutants. In addition to telepathy, she had awakened the ability to turn her entire body into diamond. Like Colossus, this granted her immense close-range combat ability and defense, making her even more dangerous.

If she had a single weakness, it was probably that she could only use one power at a time. While in diamond form, she could not use telepathy.

Of course, Zhang Ye had inferred this intelligence from the White Queen of other worlds. But in this world, Emma likely could not even bring out a tenth of her abilities.

"I looked through nearly every news report about you and asked around for all sorts of rumors. What surprised me most was that Nick Fury's Safe House actually had intelligence on you too."

Zhang Ye emptied his magazine, then casually put away the submachine gun. He stared at the unscathed White Queen Emma and grinned.

"Who would have thought that the saintly philanthropist the public adored was secretly a crazy bitch conducting human experiments? Modifying pregnant women and infants, trying to activate their telepathy... Emma, you can keep lying to yourself, but you know that no matter what you do, you will never use your telepathy again."

"You're talking nonsense!" Emma roared as she stood up. Her emotions were so agitated that she nearly fell over. "I'll get it back! I will! I definitely will!"

"Really? But how long has it been since you last heard someone else's thoughts? Three years? Five years? Even longer? Right now, you're merely using these pathetic methods to control these children. Just as Pietro said, you can't even see that their souls have become entangled with psychic power, turning them into emotionless monsters that cannot die."

Though it had initially been only a guess, the information left behind in Nick Fury's Safe House confirmed Zhang Ye's suspicions.

Like Professor X, this world's Emma had awakened telepathy. Yet their fates were similarly unfortunate: both had developed multiple personality disorder after receiving too many other people's memories. Countless personalities filled her mind, turning her into a mental patient.

This was likely a pain every telepathic ability user had to face. Although it was mostly glossed over in the comics, there were still traces of it. For example, Professor X from another universe had once suffered a similar ordeal.

During a mutant conflict, Wolverine scratched Magneto. Enraged, Magneto unleashed his full power, intending to rip all the Adamantium out of Wolverine's body. This angered Professor X, who forcibly entered Magneto's mind with his telepathy.

But Magneto's mind resisted with all manner of negative emotions. That rage, grief, pain, and other negative feelings flowed back through the telepathic link into Professor X's own mind.

This led Professor X to create an existence that nearly destroyed all the superheroes—Onslaught.

In this world, however, the effects of this side effect were even stronger. Nearly everyone's mind was filled with every kind of emotion, and Emma's head had nearly been burst apart by the countless personalities.

Then, Emma awakened her diamond-form mutant ability. Whether it was because her two mutant powers conflicted with each other, from that point onward, Emma gradually lost her ability to use telepathy.

At first, her mind merely grew quieter. Later, she could not even actively probe other people's memories. In the end, Emma completely lost her telepathy and was left with only her diamond-form mutant ability.

If that had been all, it might have been a good thing for Emma. But losing telepathy did not mean her mental illness was cured. Without telepathy suppressing them, those personalities surged forth in an instant, tormenting Emma's mind without pause and even causing her diamond-form ability to spiral out of control.

In the end.

She was driven insane.

She decided to reclaim her power, so she turned her attention to newborns and pregnant women. To avoid President X and the Avengers' attention, she established churches and orphanages, appeared on television to give speeches, and packaged herself as a loving and charitable benefactor.

Combined with her exquisite, captivating beauty, politicians and conglomerates soon fell at her feet and cleared every obstacle in her path. No one knew what kind of twisted, grotesque soul lay hidden beneath that beautiful exterior.